Pezen

I have certainly uninstalled multiplayer shooters because I wanted to finish a story game. I would sit down thinking 'just a match or two' and two hours later I still had not put it down in favor of what I was supposed to play. That being said, I think the best example of this for me is Far Cry 2. Not that the game itself is too good but at the time I thought it looked too good. I remember not even being able to play the game properly because I was too focused on looking at all that graphics. Eventually I gave up on the game because I just wasn't progressing, I was just looking at that rocket fly and things blowing up nicely.

Now that I think about it and being honest with myself, I think I put down Dead Space because it was too good at what it was doing. I loved everything that game did, but I was constantly tense to the point that it just wasn't comfortable. Which is ironic given how little horror movies affect me. But at the time, after about a third of the game I just couldn't go on, I just accepted that it was getting to me. Likewise, I put down Star Craft 2 because I would end every match with a pulse that wasn't comfortable either, despite loving every moment of it.

I'll admit I rarely read user reviews, mostly because I don't know the individual or their perspective. So if the only review I can find of said game is a user review I would probably be more interested in reading a more personal take than a technical take. There's so much one can learn through videos of a game, but if someone can make a good personal case for the game rather than try to only describe what a video already tells me that would be useful. How did it relate to you, what about it worked and why.

What these threads always make me think is; how do people have the time to consume all the hours of content they put out in a given week? Even when I was living alone and had very little in ways of other obligations I could hardly keep up. But I can see an argument for it if what is going up isn't interesting to whoever. For me personally they put out more than I can consume, not saying I am into all of it but I also don't think I need to be. In fact, not being into all of it makes it alot more manageble.

I'm certainly curious, but a few ex-Bioware people isn't enough to give me a ton of confidence given recent events. However, I am always curious about games that are using choice in an rpg setting, not to mention the actual setting being sci-fi. So I'll have to keep this on my radar one way or the the other.

Having finished it I’ll give it a positive overall. It started out pretty strong, despite taking a few episodes for me to go ”oh, there are different timelines”. Also a bit annoyed at them having a really great fight at the start of the show that was never topped or even equal later on. In the middle it felt like everyone was doing side quests. And in the end it felt like everything was taking forever and not getting anywhere. But really nice choice for Geralt, even listened to an interview with him and his choice for the voice. People boiling it down to ’just doing the game’ really need to do a double take and compare. But yeah, overall it was fun, but it could definitely use moee budget and maybe even some more episodes to breathe. Because the episodes need to even out a little.

So I just finished the podcasts the other week and although I have played most of the games I knew I would be into, the one game the podcasts got me to try was Outer Wilds. While I didn’t have Jeff’s issue of not feeling like the game was pointing me in any direction, a lot of the mechanics I found out by mere chance. Learning to use the decoder or the radio thing was completely on accident.

And while the game certainly tells you ”hey, there’s some stuff on this place”, I never feel like I have enough of a perspective to piece any sort of relevancy together. So it all ends up feeling very aimless. That being said, I can see the clockwork of it all and that in and of itself is very impressive. And even solving a puzzle was very fun. However, once the loop restarts, I found that I wasn’t blown away and in fact mostly felt defeated. That’s not the game, I know that listening to the podcasts, but something about starting over on square one just felt like a chore all of a sudden. Maybe I’ll return to it some day, but my initial impression is that it seems like a very well crafted concept that demands more investment upfront than it’s willing to give you in return until a promised ’later on’.

I used to be better at finishing games, either due to more spare time or I simply didn’t jump as fast to other games. But as other’s have said, it was also a slight case of ”I bogught it and I want my money’s worth”. But having realized the concept of sunk-cost fallacy, why continue playing a game I am more or less playing out of obligation rather than enjoyment? The financial loss is the same either way, but if I keep playing I keep sinking time into something that’s not giving me anything back.

That being said, I don’t put down games with the intent of never ever giving them a second chance. Some games are the right games at the wrong time. Some games simply wear out their welcome but are fun once again a year later. It used to be my MO when it came to Assassin’s Creed post Brotherhood. I would play about 3/4 of the way through those games and put them down. By the time the next one was around the corner, I was back on the wagon and usually ended up finishing the previous one before the new one came out.

But in general these days, I just drop games organically. If the game isn’t drawing me in, I just don’t force myself to play it. There’s rarely a specific thing that makes me drop a game though, it all mainly comes down to a lack of urge. Strangely enough, a lot of games that I enjoyed up to that point still fades for me. There’s actually very few games these days that really keep my attention all the way through.

But there’s just so many games these days that I just don’t sweat it. And, some days I just wake up and feel like playing a game I haven’t touched in years. I’m sure I’ll wake up some day and suddenly install and finish AC: Origins.

Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker - 3/5 - Overall it was a decently entertaining film. I surprisingly didn’t find Kylo/Ben to be a big whiny brat this time around so that was refreshing. And looking back there’s a stark contrast between the arc he had and the one Rey had. In that, she basically has no arc at all. For all intents and purposes, Rey feels like a blank slate for the audience to project their own heroism on rather than a character of her own. Even the other two side characters in Finn and Poe felt like they have been given some sort of arc over the three films, however shallow.

Also, I am extremely over Star Wars having creatures or characters who’s existance is merely made to be a gag, overtly adorable or ”let’s see if this can turn into a meme”.

Not that much honestly, but it varies mostly depending on if I’m in a relationship or not. The time between my ex wife and my current SO, I was gaming probably more than I did as a kid. I had weekends that were spent entierly playing games. These days, living with my SO, I definitely play less. Which had made finishing games harder as I play in such irregular bursts that I end up getting excited about new releases and buy them before finishing what I was playing. The only time I finish games these days is if they really hook me and I can’t go to something else until it’s finished.

That looks straight up like some generic acion mobile game.